goin’ to san antone

My friend Holly is in charge of The Siesta Fiesta Cookbook and has been doing a fantastic job. It’s a lot of work, but Holly is such a gracious and kind person, and she has been working very hard to make this cookbook something special.

Holly and I first established a relationship in the blogosphere ~ I don’t remember who first contacted whom, but we emailed back and forth and quickly became friends.

When we took a family trip to Colorado this past March, Holly and I were able to meet in person. Joanne and Meredith were there also, and we all had an absolutely wonderful time together.

This August, Ashley, Attison and I will be attending the Living Proof Live convention in San Antonio, as well as The Siesta Fiesta. Holly was instrumental in my decision to try to attend this event ~ she’s the one who told me about it, and she asked me to consider and pray about attending. After some prayer and discussions with Roger, I decided I would like to go. The only problem was the cost of the hotel ~ it was WAY more than we could afford. But, as is His way, God provided an alternative to the expense of staying in a hotel.

We have good friends who live just outside of San Antonio. Ed (Tex) and Stacey have been back in the San Antonio area for less than a year, but they’re all moved into their house (after living in their 5th wheel for 6 months!), and they’re ready for house guests. Plus, Stacey is a young grandma herself, and she just happens to absolutely L.O.V.E. babies ~ so Ashley, Atti and I are going to stay at their house while we’re in San Antonio for LPL and The Siesta Fiesta. Stacey will be attending the events with us, so we’re sure to have a good time. Stacey is an absolute kick ~ never a dull moment with her around!

I’m really looking forward to this trip in August. It’s the same weekend as Ashley’s 20th birthday, I’ll get to see my friends Holly and Joanne (Mer, I wish you were able to go too!), I’ll be able to catch up with my friend Stacey, attend a Beth Moore/LPL event (my 2nd), and hang with my “siestas” at the fiesta. It should be an amazing trip!

atti stats

Just for the record, my daughter may be a tiny little whisp of nothing, but Attison is shaping up to be quite the little porker! She was born June 6th, and weighed 6 pounds even. When we left the hospital June 9th, Attison weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces. June 18th Attison weighed in at 7 pounds. Last Monday, June 23, she was up to 7 pounds 4 ounces. Today she weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces. That’s about an ounce a day in weight gain. My goodness! And Ashley was concerned she might not be able to produce enough milk to breastfeed Attison ~ I’d say she’s doing a rather good job!

a surprise is coming

I just HAVE to get a little teaser in here: my friend Holly and I have been working on something very special for Christian homemakers. We’re hoping to “go live” with the debut in late July or early August. The goal is to be up and running before The Siesta Fiesta in August.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it! But for now, all I can say is that we’re working hard, and we’ll get things running smoothly (hopefully) as soon as possible. Watch for the upcoming announcement!

where have you been?

I have been all over the place lately!

Sawyer was a teen leader in our church’s Music & Drama Camp last week, so I was busy taking him to and from the church every morning. And since we live over 20 miles from the church, I just couldn’t justify making 2 round trips for a 4 hour camp, so I just stayed at the church and enjoyed watching the kids learn from and work with the adults (and teen leaders). This year the “drama” was Life School Musical. I haven’t seen High School Musical, but from the name I would guess it’s a Christian take-off of High School Musical. I was at camp every day, watching as the adults and teens gently but firmly guided and instructed the kids ~ ages kindergarten through 6th grade ~ and taught them the lines, choreography and music of Life School Musical. The performance Friday night was fantastic. Everyone involved in our church’s Music & Drama Camp do an amazing job. Pastor Eddie tells the kids that perfection is not the goal ~ excellence is. Both of my sons were involved in MaD when we lived here last time, and Patrick even had a major speaking role in one of them. It’s so cool to see the kids who were in kindergarten all those years ago now working as teen leaders.

I took pictures:

Music and Drama Camp ‘08

After MaD, Sawyer and I would rush home to make lunner (lunch + dinner = lunner), then head BACK to the church for choir practice. Every night ~ except Wednesday, when Sawyer had youth group AT THE CHURCH, and Friday night when the kids performed Life School Musical AT THE CHURCH. So, as you can see, I spent a lot of time AT THE CHURCH last week!

This week Sawyer has a couple of hours of choir practice tonight and tomorrow night (AT THE CHURCH, imagine that), then he will pack up and head to Colorado for 10 days with the youth choir. They’ll perform at a large cathedral in Kansas City and several churches all over Colorado. They’ll also perform at the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel on Sunday for the Protestant service. I can’t even begin to express how HUGE of a deal performing at the Cadet Chapel is. NO ONE gets to perform there. I’m not sure how Pastor Eddie managed to pull that booking off, but I have a strong suspicion it has something to do with a friend of ours, a retired AF colonel, who lives in the area. (By the way, we miss you, Brian and Sherri!) I seriously considered volunteering as one of the adult chaperons for this choir trip ~ I miss the mountains, and I would love to be somewhere that has lower humidity. But, having my daughter move in and being present for Attison’s birth took precedence over a trip to Colorado this year. Maybe next time…..

I haven’t taken any pictures of Attison this week, but here’s one from last week:

Other than being a little fussy now and then, she’s really an angel baby. She’s working hard on holding up her head, and she is beginning to show some personality with occasional smiles. Of course I will be taking pictures this week ~ and you know I’ll post them!

roger’s birthday

Yesterday was Roger’s 41st birthday! We celebrated with a yummy lasagna made by Jacob’s mom, and a heavenly peanut butter chocolate ganache cake made by my friend Kathryn. Everything was wonderful, and we had a lovely time!

Happy birthday, Rog!

hotm conference

My friend Tamara @ Training Hearts is giving away 5 chances to win a ticket for the Heart of the Matter online’s virtual conference:

Shhhh! Do you hear that? It is the comfort of your home calling you. PJs, coffee, or tea (your flavor), and five fun filled days just for you!

In Heart of the Matter Online’s
(http://heartofthematteronline.com/) quest to bring you the absolute best home school resource online, they have listened to your requests and are providing you with a fun filled online adventure! On July 30th through August 3rd, they will be hosting Heart of the Matter Online’s first annual Virtual Homeschool Conference! They will be providing the attendees with motivational speakers, video tutorials, free products, question and answer sessions, and a vendor hall – all ONLINE! Just log on and listen live during that time or log in at your convenience and download the audios.

This conference will be less like a “seminar” and more like a bunch of close friends in a chat room. Just wait till you see what some of your favorite home school personalities (http://www.hotmconference.com/2008/03/2008-speakers.html) have done to educate and entertain you! At the end you will join in to chat with them, ask questions, and they will answer.

{Click on graphic above to get the Early Bird Special!}

To ensure your spot in the conference room and to take advantage of the early bird special. Simply, visit the Heart of the Matter Online Conference (http://www.hotmconference.com) site and click the “pay now” button. At $19.95 these prices won’t last long! This $19.95 includes a fabulous $30 package from Currclick: curriculum in a click! Currclick (formerly HomeschoolEstore) is the largest one-stop shop for electronic lapbooks, affordable curriculum, and homeschooling resources.

If you would like to be entered in Tamara’s drawing, click here.

another comparison

Edited: Just for clarification, the picture on the left is me at about a week old (February, 1968), the picture on the right is Attison, taken yesterday (6/15/2008).

more pics…

Ariel came to visit Friday to see Attison: (you can click on all of these pictures to see a larger version)

Miss Attison finally decided to have a long alert period and pose for the camera:

Mommy and Papa both enjoyed Atti being awake long enough to play with and talk to:

good screams

Click on the photo to see a larger version….

Me:

Ashley:

Attison:

chickens

Alright all you chickens who won’t make a commitment on whether or not those 3 baby pictures show serious resemblances or not……..

Please take into consideration that Ashley’s father is about a quarter Native American ~ that accounts for the difference in skin colors and noses. In the winter Ashley’s as white as a white girl can be, but in the summer she tans to an amazing mahogany brown in about 5 minutes of sunlight. Also, Ashley’s nose is a combination of my nose and her father’s. Her father has a rather flat-ish Native American-ish nose ~ my nose is very much a European mutt kind of nose (so is my skin color!).

Also, please remember that the picture of me was taken in 1968, so the color isn’t all that great. I had to scan in the pictures of myself and Ashley ~ Attison’s picture is digital.

As soon as I can get my hands on a baby picture of Jacob, I’ll post it. We’re just really joking around about the resemblance thing ~ Attison is pretty much a 50/50 baby. There are some definite maternal aspects, but there are paternal ones as well. No worries ~ we’re not concerned about Attison’s heritage/ancestry one bit, but I do appreciate all of the kind comments!

family resemblance?

There has been a little debate (all in fun) around my house lately over who Attison resembles more : Ashley or Jacob. I don’t have any of Jacob’s baby pictures scanned into my computer, however I do have these pics, which I offer as support of my position that Attison resembles her maternal side:

Me:

Ashley:

Attison:

What do you think?

here she is….

Attison was born yesterday, June 6, around 5:30pm. After a day of laboring it was decided that a C-section was necessary. Attison’s heartrate crashed, and within 3 minutes the doctor had Ashley in the operating room. It was the best decision, truly. Momma and baby did very, very well. The cord was wrapped around Attison’s leg twice, which is probably what caused her heartrate to bottom out as she decending farther into the birth canal.

Atti weighed 6 pounds (on the nose) at birth, and was 19 inches long. She’s beautiful, and absolutely perfect. She fusses when she’s hungry or needs her diaper changed….that’s it. She is an absolute champ at breastfeeding ~ I’ve never seen a baby latch on immediately and simply KNOW what she’s doing. Amazing.

I’m completely in love! Here are a few photos….. (click on the photo to see the album)

Attison’s Birth

at the hospital

Ashley’s pain level with the contractions increased significantly this morning, so I took her back to the doctor’s office. She was dilated to 4, which was the magic number, so they sent us over to the hospital and admitted her to L&D. Right now she’s getting an epidural, and after that will probably start getting pitocin. Which means ~ I’m going to have a grandchild today!

new photo album

Ashley and I spent some time today out taking pictures. We wanted to get some good ones before Attison is born. Take a look……

Ashley June 5, 2008

i think she’s ready

couch monkeys

My couch monkeys and their favorite sidekick….

waiting for baby

Yesterday was a very long day. Ashley started having contractions Sunday evening around 8:30. They were a little uncomfortable, and anywhere from 5 to 7 minutes apart, so we didn’t think too much about it. I just kept giving her water (after all it IS my Windex) and told her to try to get some sleep. surprisingly enough, she was actually able to sleep, even though the contractions continued through the night.

I called the doctor’s office yesterday morning, after the contractions had been going on for over 12 hours. The nurse told me to bring Ashley in so they could hook her up to the monitors to see what was going on. Once we got there and they did their little test, they determined she was dilated to 2, and sent her over to the Labor & Delivery floor of the hospital for further observation.

The contractions were pretty good ones ~ spiking off the chart about every 2 minutes. After 4 hours, though, there was no change in dilation, so the doctor decoded that since Ashley has just reached the 36 weeks point, it was time to stop the contractions and not let her go into what is still considered “early labor” at 36 weeks. So, they pumped her full of drugs (that none of us were happy about, but the benefits of waiting at least another week before delivery far outweigh any short-term side effects Ashley was made to suffer through because of the drugs) and eventually the contractions stopped. We were at the hospital for about 12 hours before we were finally able to go home.

Ashley got up this morning and said she was having contractions again, but she didn’t know how regular they were because she had been sleeping. She went back to bed, so they must not be too intense right now. The doc said the contractions are fine, but unless she dilates to at least a 4 he’s not going tolet her deliver before 37 weeks. She has a regular doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning, so we’ll see if she has dilated any more by then.

false alarm

Ashley had a couple of hours of contractions last night. They were irregular, so we didn’t feel the need to rush off to the hospital ~ although if it were up to Ashley and Jacob (oh, alright, I confess, me too) she would have Attison today. We’re just a bit tired of waiting for Miss Atti to make her appearance, but obviously she’s not quite ready yet, so we’ll keep waiting.

Ashley’s visiting the OB once a week now. Last week he commented on her lack of stretch marks. She has been doing a remarkable job with the stretch mark cream ~ lots and lots of cocoa butter. She has gained about 35 pounds so far. But that’s actually GOOD ~ the doc told her to keep eating, pretty much whatever she wants and as much as she wants. When you start out at 89 pounds, I guess you’re allowed to gain more weight! She will probably have lost the majority of her pregnancy weight a month after Attison is (finally) born. Her metabolism is that fast ~ lucky little stinker.

Ashley was finally able to go to bed around 11:30pm and fell right to sleep. I slept for about 3 hours, but I’m up again ~ I’m having lots of fibromyalgia pain, and surprisingly enough, sleeping tends to make it worse. But I’m glad Ashley was able to get to sleep ~ since she hasn’t been up in several hours, I’m guessing the contractions finally stopped.

toby mac ~ live?

Yep ~ Toby Mac live. Well, a recording of a live concert, anyway. In the theater. And you could win a DVD and CD of the live performance. Free. Intrigued? Go here for a chance to enter!